Online order, delivery services taking bite out of S.F....

1of 2Merigan Sub Shop uses Caviar to allow easy ordering for customers.Photo: John Storey / John Storey / Special to the Chronicle

2of 2The Marlowe Burger at Marlowe in San Francisco, Calif. is seen on November 20th, 2014.Photo: John Storey, Special to the Chronicle

Running a successful restaurant in San Francisco has never been easy.

Between soaring rent, labor costs, heavy competition and food costs, even the city’s best restaurants operate on razor-thin profit margins, often in the 7 to 16 percent range. Now the city’s restaurants — especially many in the fast-casual sector — are faced with another, almost counterintuitive challenge: technology.

Diners’ buying behaviors are changing. Online ordering and delivery services like Eat24, GrubHub, Postmates and Caviar are great boons to customers, often enabling citywide delivery with a mere swipe of a finger. For restaurants, though, it’s been a mixed blessing.

“We have seen a huge increase in our sales via online partners like Caviar, specifically,” says Nate Pollak, CEO and founder of American Grilled Cheese Kitchen, with locations in South Park and the Mission, and a third on the way to the corner of Battery and Broadway.

However, Caviar takes a 20 percent commission. Tack on the credit card processing fees (3.5 percent) that many other online services charge, and suddenly that’s a sizable loss of profits. In 2013, Pollak says that his restaurants did 10 percent of weekday sales via online ordering; that number boomed to 30 percent in 2014.

“The restaurant game is you manage your food and labor. Those are the only two costs manageable on a day-to-day basis,” he continues. “Once you start giving away commissions to all these providers, it’s great for cash flow. It’s great for sales. It’s great for top-line numbers, but your profitability starts to sink, sink, sink.”

But like OpenTable and online reservation sites, third-party online ordering and delivery services are becoming increasingly important — if not essential — marketing tools.

“It increases our reach, and I think people ordering for offices prefer to order online so they don’t have to talk to someone on the phone. It makes things easier,” says Liza Shaw, the chef-owner of the 15-month-old Merigan Sub Shop (636 Second St.), who uses Caviar.

“Overall, I think without any of these services, our business would not exist today,” she continues, noting that online ordering and deliveries account for roughly 30 percent of her sales. As a small, independent restaurant, Merigan would never have the bandwidth or money to provide those services on its own. “The fact that there’s someone out there is amazing,” Shaw says.

The biggest thing that worries Shaw is the delivery itself, and her lack of control in making sure her submarine sandwiches get to customers in a timely and fresh manner. That hasn’t been an issue so far, she says.

Still, that brings up a more philosophical matter: The lack of human interaction and customer relationships.

Lower Haight chicken joint Wing Wings (422 Haight St.) gets a lot of business from Postmates, a delivery service that doesn’t take a cut since it operates independently from restaurants.

“They don’t charge you anything,” says Wing Wings owner Christian Ciscle. “It’s just like a sale, which is great. The negative side is we have zero relationship with the customer.

“We’re out of the loop. It’s like Uber. It’s a bunch of randoms delivering food. Anybody can do it,” he says, pointing out that while most delivery people are professional, others might pick up an order wielding a cigarette or even show up barefoot.

And there is another twist: Earlier this month, Yelp bought Eat24, a reported $134 million transaction that likely will make online ordering even more streamlined — but has left many restaurateurs worrying about increased fees, promotional ploys or being partnered with Yelp.

How will restaurateurs reconcile the cost of third-party services?

Some, like the American Grilled Cheese Kitchen, will raise prices to compensate. Some may simply opt out. Others will opt in. Regardless, it is a dilemma that doesn’t seem to be going away.

Ponders Ciscle: “It’s a bigger disconnect from the customer ... but it’s the ultimate convenience.”

Farewell tour for the Lex: The Mission’s beloved Lexington Club (3464 19th St.) has finally announced its closure date: April 30.

Owner Lila Thirkield is selling the 18-year-old bar — one of the city’s last remaining lesbian bars — to the PlumpJack Group, which hopes to reopen the space as a new concept by the end of the year.

It’s the latest in a string of closures of the older generation of San Francisco gay bars, following on the heels of the shuttered Esta Noche, Marlena’s and Kok Bar, among others.

In her eloquent goodbye note, Thirkield captured the bittersweet nature of the finale.

“To know the space has meant so much to folks over the years and to get to focus on that is truly a gift,” she wrote. “This was never going to be easy, but with a community that is capable of feeling the loss while also celebrating the history truly does make me proud in every sense of the word. Every step along the way I felt your love — and I want to continue to celebrate the Lexington Club until the very last moment.”

Burger time: Is San Francisco ready for more burgers?

The best-selling dish that put Marlowe (500 Brannan St.) on the map — and was then replicated for North Beach sequel Park Tavern — will soon spawn an entire restaurant, as the ownership regime of chef Jennifer Puccio, Anna Weinberg and James Nicholas will resurrect the original Marlowe space (330 Townsend St.) as a new-ish restaurant dubbed Marlowe Burger.

Slated to open April 1, Marlowe Burger will feature a concise menu of four of the restaurant’s biggest hits: the burger, the fried chicken sandwich, the Brussels sprouts chips and the fries.

Room with a View: Especially with the demise of the Carnelian Room, San Francisco doesn’t have a lot of venues to fully appreciate the city’s magical skyline, but here’s a little secret: The panoramas from the View Lounge (780 Mission St.) are, surprisingly, some of the best in town.

The View Lounge is hidden in plain sight on the 39th floor of the Marriott Marquis at Fourth and Mission streets.

Despite its showstopping Art Deco-inspired “starburst” windows, the bar had been characterized in the past by a dated look and overpriced martinis. However, a $2 million renovation has brought it into the year 2015.

It’s now newly reopened with a more modern look, which means that the ’80s-era psychedelic carpet has, sadly, given way to dark wood surfaces, pendant lights and an overall cleaner, darker color scheme. Chef David Holland has also revamped the menu; naturally, there is pork belly involved.

Paolo Lucchesi is the San Francisco Chronicle’s Inside Scoop columnist. He covers all breaking restaurant news in the Bay Area, from openings and closings to chef gossip and other food media. Before coming to The Chronicle food section, he served as the founding editor of Eater San Francisco, which launched in fall 2007, and later Eater National, which launched in fall 2009.